


Familiar- Agnes Obel

by Sageandshit



Series: For Kristitha Schmistitha [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 03:11:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21421234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sageandshit/pseuds/Sageandshit
Relationships: Player Character (Hogwarts Mystery)/Charlie Weasley
Series: For Kristitha Schmistitha [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518365
Kudos: 8





	Familiar- Agnes Obel

“You’re fucking kidding me.” Hadley felt the life drain from her body immediately. How could she be so fucking stupid. This wasn’t a Judd Apatow film. She had been fully moronic. She knew their had to be a translation error. “I’m sorry- there must be some kind of mistake.” She urged the nurse. “What are the results for my STD test?” 

“You are very clean.” The nurse nodded. “-But you are also uhm… with child.” 

“Bullshit.” She blurted. “Where? How? I;m on birth control.” 

“Ma’am.” The woman looked at her, bewildered, and in a thick accent said “Please slow down. Speak clearly.” 

“I can’t be pregnant.” 

“You are pregnant.” The calm middle-aged nurse clasped her hands. “Would you like to review your options?” She had sadi while glancing down at Hadley’s left hand. 

“I need to go.” She grabbed her backpack and felt the floor give out a little as she stood up. She steadied herself before shouting “Thanks.” Over her shoulder. 

Getting to her apartment was a fever dream. She paid the clinic, somehow, and on cinder-block burdened legs she trudged to a taxi, absent-mindedly. She handed the muggle wizarding currency and it took four times of him waving the bills at her angrily for her to understand the mistake. She hadn’t taken a taxi since her trip to New York after graduation. She apologized in a dream-like state, with constant tear-lined eyes and the driver let up on her. 

She didn’t realize she was putting the wrong key in the keyhole and struggled for fifteen minute before sitting down outside her own apartment, hanging her head in her arms and closing her eyes, letting tears trail down her nose and drop onto her legs while the scent of spiced european soups wafted around her. 

“Hey.” She heard a familiar voice and eventually looked up from her spot on the floor. Orlaith, Mascha and Nikolai stood before her, looking wary and concerned. She had forgotten she had invited them to the usual friday night ritual. 

Four hours ago she assumed she;d get a clean bill of health and be at her apartment to set up for another movie night with her gang. 

“Oh hey.” She said in a lifeless voice. “I got locked out.” 

“Your keys are right here.” Mascha bent down and picked up her keychain. 

“Hey, guys, will you go get us some more beer?” Orlaith nudged Nikolai with her elbow. 

“We hav-”

“We’re short some beer.” Orlaith said through gritted teeth. “Go get us some more beer, guys.” 

“Oh Hadley.” Orlaith cracked a beer open for all three of them. 

“Should I not be drinking?” Hadley asked. For the first time in her life Hadley wasn’t really certain. There were countless times where Hadley was confused about what she should do in life or if she was making the right choices or maybe even if she had made mistakes and whether or not she should be regretful towards them. 

But there was an utter dread in her gut right now- she was completely paralized with confusion. 

“Well…” Orlaith dragged her fingers across the counter, thoughtfully. “My mum didn’t know she was knocked up until her fourth month. She drank plenty during that first part and I’m fine.” She shrugged. “So even if you… y’know. Want it.” 

“Maybe, in this instance,” Jules, usually quiet, chimed in, “You should have a beer for you. Y’Know? Maybe you need this right now.” 

“I fucking do.” Hadley felt her shoulders relax for the first time in what felt like years, even though it had only been about two hours. SHe grabbed the beer and took a huge swig. 

“So what are you going to do?” Orlaith asked. Jules shot her a look and mouthed “not yet.” 

“No, it’s fine.” Hadley did her best impression of a smile. “I should probably be figuring that out before I go much further with this.” 

“You’re gone in three months and you guys haven’t spoken a word to each other.” 

“Yeah. This is going to suck.” 

“Are you going to tell him?” Jules asked, shyly.

“Do I even have to? He’s not a part of this- if I choose not to go through with it.” 

“Hmm.” Orlaith sighed before drinking half the beer in one gulp. “Normally I’d say fuck the bugger. But in this specific instance… maybe he should know.” 

“I just want to have this happen way differently.” Hadley put her forehead on the cool marble countertop. 

“Don;t we all.” She heard Jules mumble and the chink of their beer bottles knocking together. 

“So we’re talking now?” Charlie leaned against the cubbies as Hadley took off her mucky rainboots and put on her after-work shoes. 

“Just for now.” She shrugged. 

“Well. Want to apparate together?” 

“Old times sake.” She rolled her eyes, suppressing a smile. She hated the fact that they hadn’t spoken in months and the moment they were back to talking she felt butterflies in her guts. 

She had left him a sticky note on his lunch bag, asking him to meet her at her favorite tavern after work. She hadn’t expected him to approach her so confidently after work and it made her heart jump.

“You’re so hard to read, Wachter.” He mumbled and grabbed her elbow. “Y’done yet?” 

“Let me put my jacket on, damn.” She smiled. 

“What are you having?” She asked him, leaning over the bar. 

“Whatever you are.” He shrugged. “Are you treating?” 

“Yeah. Go get us a table.” 

“Bossy.” He jibed before excusing himself to grab a booth in the back area. In truth she wanted him nowhere near the bar when she ordered. 

“I’ll take a seltzer water and a gin and tonic but both with a lime, please.” 

“Sure.” 

“Here.” She slid his drink to him as she scooted into the booth across from him. 

“Thanks.” He said, timidly. “Hey. Thanks for breaking the silence. I can get stubborn.” 

“Don’t thank me yet.” She said into her drink as she gulped to busy herself. 

“I was honestly going to say something soon anyway.” He admitted, drinking slowly. “Is it a race?” He asked, watching her take a few more drinks. 

“Nope.” SHe shrugged. This was probably when she could have used alcohol. She had wasted her beer.

“Listen,” She sat up straight and put her palms on the table. “I don;t want to prolong this because it’s only going to be super awkward no matter what.” 

“Hadley, it’s totally okay-” He started to interject before she shook her head at him. 

“I think we both wanted different things from this and I should have made myself more clear about what I was and wasn;t okay with when you asked me to drinks-”

“Hadley,” Charlie interrupted again, “I was an idiot. I love spending time with you. You’re one of my favorite people I’ve ever met. I get really flighty when people try to tie me down but you weren’t doing that. I just jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst case scenario.” 

“Okay,” Hadley breathed deeply. “You’re gonna’ need to not interrupt me again, first of all. Secondly, dating me for a few months and deciding what happens next is not the worst case scenario. And if it is, then don’t eat me out like an all night buffet.”

“Let’s not do this again-” 

“Charlie.” Hadley made her voice firm and unwavering. “What I brought you here to say is that we didn’t use protection. And what I thought was going to be the worst case scenario was that I caught a curable STD from a shithead Sagittarius turned into catching a pregnant from a shithead Sagittarius.” 

“What?” Charlie’s eyebrows furrowed, relaxed, furrowed again and pushed even further together as he swallowed spit. 

“I was trying to tell you I got pregnant. From the sex.” She hated herself for caring about sounding idiotic in this moment but she immediately felt her cheeks flush. What else do you get pregnant from?

“Oh… shit.” He pushed his drink away from him. “Shit.” He pulled it back and drank half of it in one swallow. “Shit.”

“Good vocab.” She smiled. 

“Don’t joke right now, Wachter.” 

“Charlie.” She rolled her eyes. “There’s not much else to fucking do about it.” 

“Shit.” 

“Cheers.” She clinked the edge of her seltzer water to his glass and drank. 

“Well don’t do that, then.” He pulled the drink out of her hand and eyed her like she was a lunatic. 

“Excuse me?” She grabbed it back. “Are you trying to dehydrate me?”

“What are you doing, drinking?” His eyes were full of confusion and concern. 

“It’s water, idiot.” She smirked. “But in a few weeks I’ll be able to drink again.” She shrugged. “I just thought I should let you know…- Orlaith thought I should tell you, actually.”

“So everyone knows?” He rubbed his shoulder. 

“Everyone seems to know about everything here…” She looked at the dim Romanian bar that used to feel cozy but in this moment felt very claustrophobic. 

“Can we get out of here?” Her eyes met Charlie’s warm chocolate eyes and he gestured toward the door. “Can we talk in private?” 

“So you’ve thought it through and this is what you want to do?” Charlie and Hadley were immediately informal once they were back at Hadley’s. They both lay on her bed staring at the ceiling and avoiding each other's gaze. 

“It’s kind of the only option, Charlie.” 

“I just thought you were using protection.” He said aimlessly. Talking in circles, since whether or not protection was used- it hadn’t worked. 

“I wasn’t doing my best magic. I was hurried and kind of drunk.”

They sat in silence for the better part of thirty minutes. Hadley wanted, badly, to ask him what he wanted but she had known what he wanted. In this situation every man wanted the same thing. Take care of it and move on. She had a nagging feeling that wasn’t the right choice, though. It wasn’t buried in a shroud of religiousness. It was her gut. She had spent a weekend alone knowing she had a little tadpole inside of her and it felt… right. She had never been absolutely certain she was ever on the right life path. She hadn’t loved her job and she hadn’t felt called to do what she was doing. She was simply good at it and knew adults worked so she did the same. She watched her friends either find their passions or just work so they could play on the weekends and she was somewhere in between. She was fine doing what she did but she wasn’t head over heels for it. 

This weekend she found herself rubbing her stomach the way women did in pregnancy commercials and talking to her stomach. She knew that was absolutely not what she should be doing, but she couldn’t contain herself. It wasn’t like she thought she was running out of time or that she wouldn;t have the opportunity to have a family later in her life. She just felt right. It was completely mental, for lack of a better word. But it just felt right. 

“So you’re dead certain?” Charlie broke through the silence while propping himself up on his elbows and watching her face intently. It was as if he could read her mind. She shrugged. 

“No.” She meant to say ‘I don’t know’ but her mouth betrayed her mind and the truth just kind of tumbled out. She sat up and watched emotions dance across his face. Scared. Sad. Nervous. Worried. 

“It’s not that I do or don’t want to.” She said after a lengthy time filled with looking into each others eyes nakedly. “I’m just so confused.”

“Me too.” He admitted and turned to sit cross-legged in front of her. For the first time he didn’t feel older than her. There were tons of times she had proven far more worldly wizened than he but he had always seemed more experienced, cooler, calmer. Altogether unphasable. Like he had lived a life before she had existed and not much could really surprise or scare him.

Right now all of that washed away. He was looking at her with eyes full of pent up emotion and his hands fidgeted with the comforter. He was sitting like a kid and he, for the first time since knowing him, looked like a kid. 

Her nerves around him ebbed. She felt a little more confident. More equal. She wanted, more than anything, to be in a place right now where she could pull him into an embrace and kiss his cheeks and forehead and tell him everything would be totally fine. She wanted to be able to say that and mean it- it wasn’t untrue. She’d be fine however this played out. She had savings. She had a good family and a home waiting for her. She just didn’t know what he was thinking and she was mentally willing him to open up. 

“I don’t know either.” He sighed and looked at his dirty fingernails. Once again, reading her mind somehow. She held her tongue, wanting to prod him for more but knowing that letting silence settle between them would be its own prod without her seeming pushy. 

“I thought I knew what I wanted out of life, you know?” He said to the wall behind her. “I was pretty certain it was me dying via dragon burns or something. And it very much involved no one besides me and a few friends.” He shrugged and moved his gaze to her shoulder. 

“Okay…” She shrugged back, once again holding her tongue as well as she knew how. It wasn’t her strong suit but she pulled together all of the willpower she

“You freak me out.” He blurted bluntly. She stared at him blankly, in response. 

“This is one of those moments where I want to be offended but I’m going to wait for more clarification.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously but allowed the silence to fall again, momentarily. 

“I’m comfortable with you.” He moved his gaze to meet hers, finally. But as if it were an accident, he pulled his gaze to the left, quickly. “I don’t like to be that comfortable. -Or I didn’t? I don’t. I don’t know.” He stood up, quickly. “It’s so dumb.” 

“How dumb?” She asked, smiling nervously. 

“The most dumb.” He flopped down, backwards on the bed next to Hadley again. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down next to him, startling her. She curled up in the pit of his arm like a cat and watched his chest move. “You are stupidly enjoyable as a person.” He said, kissing the top of her head and sending her stomach into spirals. “I love your dumb voice.” 

“Hey.” She poked his rib and he winced, his ticklish spot activated. 

“I love your stupid voice and your stupid laugh and you’re fucking smart. You call me out constantly and you’re too young for me but somehow you always have something to teach me.” He grabbed a chunk of his hair and pulled at it repeatedly, causing it to stick out at weird angles. “I feel at home around you and it makes me nervous. I thought it was going to be simple and that we were going to have a fun thing and you would leave and I wouldn’t feel bad.” 

“I’m going to wait for the good part before I react.” She mumbled. 

“I’m getting there, Miss Patience.”

“Taking your time with it…” She mumbled back. 

“I’m sorry I made it immediately weird. It was narcissistic of me to assume you wanted all of my time when you just asked for breakfast.” He pulled her in tighter. “This is gonna sound so completely idiotic but I wanted to go to breakfast with you. I wanted to spend the day with you. I wanted to spend the weekend with you. Merlin, the past month I’ve been working through imaginary scenarios where I find a way to make you talk to me. You;ve iced me out and I’ve been too nervous to let it thaw. I usually do whatever I want and I never let other peoples’ actions affect me.

But you’ve got me in this weird place where I’m nervous to act but I’m freaking the fuck out inside knowing you leave way too soon.” 

“You are an idiot.” Hadley sat up and stared incredulously at him. “You could have said literally anything. Anything small portion of what you’ve just said makes me feel way less crazy than I have been feeling.”

“I didn’t mean to gaslight you with the whole breakfast nonsense. I was not communicating properly. I’m a grown man who has lived his life single and very content with it. I’d make a shit partner and I can’t even fathom how to correctly be anyone’s boyfriend.” 

Hadley couldn’t control the lump that had gathered in her throat. It ached for release but she cursed it back down. She did not want to cry. She didn’t want to look weak and young and stupid right now. Why did her body not listen to her commands?

“I don’t want to not spend every day with you. That’s what I’m trying to say.” Charlie sat up to match her. “I don’t know what it;s going to lead to. I’ve never done this before and I feel stupid and childish. I don’t know what we’re going to do in two month- oh god no. What did I say? Have I ruined it already?” Charlie scrambled closer to Hadley whose eyes were red rimmed, hot and glassy.

“Hadley tell me what you’re thinking.” Charlie took her hand and she shook her head vigorously. 

“Don’t talk about it or I’m gonna’ cry for sure.” She said as quickly and shortly as possible and stared at the ceiling hoping her eyes would become dry and regular quickly. 

“What did I say?”

“Stop.” Hadley begged but the tears just came, uninvited and unwelcome. Her chin quivered without her permission and she felt herself pool into a mess. 

“Oh my god. Hadley, I’m sorry. I told you I have no fucking clue what I’m doing, for context.”

“It’s not you.” She folded her arms over her knees and tucked her head in the space it created. “I’m just happy because I don’t feel insane and mad because you could have literally said any of that at any point.” She let out a small sob. “And I don’t know why I;m crying.” 

“I told you I’m bad at this.” He scooted near her and put his hand on the small of her back. 

“I feel so dumb for crying.” She wiped at her nose and looked up at him. 

“You look cute.” He smiled at her. 

“So what are we going to do now?” She sat her side to his and leaned on his shoulder. 

“We can do whatever you want. I’m just here to support you.” 

“You don’t have a single opinion?”

“I have a ton of opinions.” He laughed and started pulling at his hair again. “It’s a matter of whether or not it’s my business or my place. Which I feel it isn’t.”

“What if I don’t care but I want to hear them anyway?” She asked up to him. 

“Well…” He slapped his thigh with his hands. “I think right now we need to order dinner. I think we should get takeout and watch a movie and not think about life changing decisions at this very moment.” 

“That sounds ideal but I don’t even know if I can distract myself from thinking about it.”

“I vote we eat chinese and watch whatever movie is your favorite. I don’t even care what it is.” He stood up and pulled Hadley with him. “Tonight after we’ve had the type of evening we’ve screwed ourselves out of for the past month, then we can talk about what we should do moving forward.” 

“You’re, like, surprisingly grounded and matter of fact right now.” 

“I have my moments.” He smiled. “Usually during chaos. I thrive.”


End file.
